


To be vulnerable

by Schattenfeuer



Category: Nightmare Harem (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Other, Reader-Insert, genderneutral reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:40:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25746784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schattenfeuer/pseuds/Schattenfeuer
Summary: Everyone needs someone once in a while, especially Noel.
Relationships: Noel/Reader
Kudos: 1





	To be vulnerable

You were so tired, your bones were aching and your feet hurt after walking all day long. You had seen more of the small town residing underneath Mikael’s castle than you ever wanted to, all in the name of delivering packages and mail for the Lord of the angels. At least said Lord had rather particular tastes. And happened to be on the more...extra side. One just had to look at the endlessly twisting stairway which connected the castle to the town, if one wanted to search for evidence to this claim. Another was the extravagant thermae that passed as a bath. 

Nightmare seemed to have entirely different standards of normal than your old world, you thought with a dry chuckle as you dragged your tired body down the hallway, closer towards the steamy, marble clad dream that was a hot bath. The desire to feel clean again, to get rid of the dust of the road and to just soak in the warm water was even stronger than to see the face of your lover, who had been suspiciously absent the entire day. 

Striding through the door, you wasted no time whatsoever to get your clothes off, kicked your shoes into the corner of the room and pushed through the steam and the fog of condensation until you nearly bumped your toe on the edge of the pool of water. Or at least, that was how you had imagined it would go. Instead you struggled with buttons and shoelaces, gave up halfway through and just curled up on the bench for a long moment.

During that time, you must have fallen asleep, because you could hear a sound that did absolutely not belong in here. And with here, you meant this castle. Because it sounded suspiciously like someone was singing, very softly and not very well, but still sweetly with dedication coloring lilting words. You could barely make out the lyrics, either the singer didn’t knew them as well or whatever magic had affected you, made it possible for you to speak Nightmare’s language was glitching out, if you had to use tech speak for a moment. 

Leaning closer towards the door, you narrowed your eyes, you knew this voice. You would be damned if you didn’t. Wrapping the towel tightly around your torso, you padded slowly, as silently as possible towards the pool, where a picture straight out of a children’s book waited for you. 

Noel had his back turned towards you, but you could still see a bright yellow toy duck bobbing merrily up and down on the waves created by the angel’s hand lazily twirling through the warm water. This was so adorable, a sound that was way too close to a squeal for your liking tumbled out from between your lips, Noel flinched hard and whirled around, his already big eyes growing even larger, before he quickly shut down the buds of embarrassment that were about to bloom on his face.

“Oh.it’s you.”, turning back towards the small duck, Noel pressed his chin towards his chest and you couldn’t help but chuckle once more. While his mime might had been as empty and emotionless as a blank sheet of paper, from your vantage point behind and slightly above him you could see the lovely shade of red which crept all the way up his neck to his ears. 

“Would you have preferred me being someone else?”, so cute, when he was like this, Noel reminded you a lot of a porcelain doll, even more than usual and that had to say something. He could give Mikael a run for his money in the looks department and the only one who even stood a chance at beating Noel’s unintentional puppy eyes was Kurt. Thankfully, that particular little devil was far away now. You dropped the towel and slowly climbed into the pool next to Noel. Sighing softly you tilted your head back, rested it against the piled rim of the pool. “I can go if you want.”

“No.”, and to underline this, you felt Noel reach for your hand, which had been resting underwater, right next to your thighs. A little smirk toyed around the corner of your mouth and you cracked one eye open again, cast a sidewards glance at the angel next to you. “Stay.”

“Hmmh...sure. By the way, Noel...what was that song you just sung?”, watching his reaction through the shadows cast by your eyelashes, you almost missed the way his jaw tensed, if only for a second. Yet you didn’t and his reaction made your heart clench in heavy sorrow. “It sounded so lovely.”

“It’s a secret.”, now that sounded more like a reflex than anything else. Tugging slowly at his hand, you turned towards him, watched his profile as he gently pushed the toy duck back and forth. Something about the line of his spine and the drop of his head made him appear so young, so fragile and vulnerable, that you felt the fierce desire rise within you to protect him. To wash away any bad memory, from which you were pretty sure that he had more than enough of. 

“Really? That’s too bad...I really liked it.”, you rested your head on his shoulder and felt the beating of his heart, steady and slow underneath your ear, his hair tickled your cheek and something about your closeness seemed to help him let go. This felt good. It really did, being so close to the one you loved so dearly, this felt like balm for the exhaustion that had settled so deeply in your bones. “It sounded like a lullaby.”

Humming the short sequence of tones you could remember under your breath, you waited patiently for him, all while your thumb kept drawing small circles on the back of his hand. Slowly, the tune morphed into something different, grew steadily until you were no longer humming but singing, softly and carefully spinning together a lullaby of your own as you offered him a mirror for the emotions rising within his chest. 

“I like yours more.”, he muttered softly when your last words had faded away and only a faint drip drop of water droplets falling could be heard in the vast bathroom. “Sing it again.”

And you did, with a smile on your lips and laughter in your voice.


End file.
